This is fascinating! I've never been aware of such a thing.
Kinda makes me want to try and make it happen to one of my own Toms. Just to see what happens and also see if I can grow new Plants from it, 'cause I've never had any luck from trying to collect and clean the seeds : /
What would you suggest to do to keep it sterile Edd? I'm really keen to try this.
Dove, I was aware Vivipary was a term in Botany as well as Zoology, the most obvious example being Mangrove swamps. But I'd always thought it referred to a new plant forming while still attached to the parent plant, which is the doubt I was raising in my tongue in cheek comment about Edd's googling and uncredited cut and pasting. What we're talking about in this thread are seedlings forming while still in the fruit, which is not quite the same thing.
I've just had a look, and other online dictionaries and Wiki especially seem to support what I'm saying:
Viviparous plants produce seeds that germinate before they detach from the parent. In some trees, like Jackfruit, some citrus, and avocado, the seeds can be found already germinated while the fruit goes overripe; strictly speaking this condition cannot be described as vivipary, but the moist and humid conditions provided by the fruit mimic a wet soil that encourages germination. (from Wikipedia).
But since Wiki is saying 'strictly speaking' it may be a bit of a grey area in usage.
Blue Dragon: I've had this happen in two tomatoes and a chilli, all of which I saved seeds from and successfully grew them in to plants.
One of the tomatoes was a supermarket variety, the resulting plants were healthy but variable, and some fruit didn't ripen at all. Probably an F1 supermarket variety, so my plants were variable F2s. I would speculate that the F1s were heterozygous for a gene that delayed ripening, and some of my F2s were homozygous for that gene so didn't ripen at all. So if you do the same thing, they may or may not be 'quite possibly delicious.'
The other tomato and chilli were from fruit I'd grown myself. Because they'd been carefully picked and stored, and not subjected to the travel and bruising like shop bought ones, they can last a lot longer without going off, giving them a chance to start germinating inside the fruit. And I never refrigerate them. The seedlings produced healthy plants and fruits, so it's certainly possible to give it a go.
Many years ago (so many that I was still a student...), I dropped something in the car and it rolled under the driver's seat. I stuck my hand under the seat and was shocked to find somthing moist and furry under there.
Girding my loins, I carefully extracted what turned out to be a very wrinkly and squashy tomato in the early stages of growing lots of baby tomatoes through its skin.
Goodness knows how long it had been under there. It must have rolled out of a shopping bag at some point.
Edd While Wikipedia can undoubtedly be a helpful tool and has its place in the world, I have yet to use it to prove the veracity of any statement
And here's a thought, can a 'vine-ripened tomato' be said to have 'detached from the plant' if it is still attached to the piece of vine on which it grew? After all, it's not ripened to the stage where it detaches from the vine itself.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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Thanks for explaining, I might leave one in the fridge as an experiment, I'm always willing to try something and it can't do any harm
Will let you know which wins!
Here is another photo I took of it , as I said the rest of the vine was normal
Plus it is still 'fresh'
This is fascinating! I've never been aware of such a thing.
Kinda makes me want to try and make it happen to one of my own Toms. Just to see what happens and also see if I can grow new Plants from it, 'cause I've never had any luck from trying to collect and clean the seeds : /
What would you suggest to do to keep it sterile Edd? I'm really keen to try this.
Dove, I was aware Vivipary was a term in Botany as well as Zoology, the most obvious example being Mangrove swamps. But I'd always thought it referred to a new plant forming while still attached to the parent plant, which is the doubt I was raising in my tongue in cheek comment about Edd's googling and uncredited cut and pasting. What we're talking about in this thread are seedlings forming while still in the fruit, which is not quite the same thing.
I've just had a look, and other online dictionaries and Wiki especially seem to support what I'm saying:
Viviparous plants produce seeds that germinate before they detach from the parent. In some trees, like Jackfruit, some citrus, and avocado, the seeds can be found already germinated while the fruit goes overripe; strictly speaking this condition cannot be described as vivipary, but the moist and humid conditions provided by the fruit mimic a wet soil that encourages germination. (from Wikipedia).
But since Wiki is saying 'strictly speaking' it may be a bit of a grey area in usage.
Blue Dragon: I've had this happen in two tomatoes and a chilli, all of which I saved seeds from and successfully grew them in to plants.
One of the tomatoes was a supermarket variety, the resulting plants were healthy but variable, and some fruit didn't ripen at all. Probably an F1 supermarket variety, so my plants were variable F2s. I would speculate that the F1s were heterozygous for a gene that delayed ripening, and some of my F2s were homozygous for that gene so didn't ripen at all. So if you do the same thing, they may or may not be 'quite possibly delicious.'
The other tomato and chilli were from fruit I'd grown myself. Because they'd been carefully picked and stored, and not subjected to the travel and bruising like shop bought ones, they can last a lot longer without going off, giving them a chance to start germinating inside the fruit. And I never refrigerate them. The seedlings produced healthy plants and fruits, so it's certainly possible to give it a go.
I have a rather embarrassing tale to tell.
Many years ago (so many that I was still a student...), I dropped something in the car and it rolled under the driver's seat. I stuck my hand under the seat and was shocked to find somthing moist and furry under there.
Girding my loins, I carefully extracted what turned out to be a very wrinkly and squashy tomato in the early stages of growing lots of baby tomatoes through its skin.
Goodness knows how long it had been under there. It must have rolled out of a shopping bag at some point.
Edd
While Wikipedia can undoubtedly be a helpful tool and has its place in the world, I have yet to use it to prove the veracity of any statement 
And here's a thought, can a 'vine-ripened tomato' be said to have 'detached from the plant' if it is still attached to the piece of vine on which it grew? After all, it's not ripened to the stage where it detaches from the vine itself.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.